Is initial jobless claims the total number of people filing for the week or the number of people filing for the first time?

1 Answer

Bob

0

Initial jobless claims measures the number of people filing for state jobless benefits. Essentially, initial jobless claims measure emerging unemployment, and it's every week on Thursday and measures the previous weeks claims.

Continuing jobless claims data measure the number of people claiming unemployment benefits, and it's released one week later than the initial jobless claims, that's the reason why initialclaims will typically have a higher impact on the financial markets.